A facility for selecting a location determination technique from multiple available location determination techniques in order to determine the location of a mobile device in a cost or resource efficient manner. In order to select the location determination technique, the facility may consider various criteria such as the cost of employing the techniques, quality of service (QoS) criteria, the capabilities and/or resources of given mobile devices and/or networks, and/or the like. To select the location determination technique, the facility may rank the multiple location determination techniques according to weighted criteria and select the location determination technique according to the ranking. The criteria may be weighted according to the relative importance of each criterion to a requesting location-based service.